1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to a communication system address interface to server applications. More particularly, it relates to a system and method for making the IP address of a remote Telnet client in a TCP/IP network accessible to server applications.
2. Background Art
Customers and businesses frequently use terminal emulators to attach to remote computer systems, often many remote systems at once. In TCP/IP networks, terminal emulation occurs through Telnet servers and clients. Telnet servers and clients recognize each other through their Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. (Example of an IP address: 123.456.789.012.) Businesses with TCP/IP networks often desire to have their Telnet applications be able to determine who the Telnet client is. That is, the Telnet application needs the Telnet server to somehow make the IP address of the Telnet client accessible to it.
Some systems, including the IBM AS/400 have heretofore not been able to specifically assign device names, and therefore its TCP/IP support randomly defined virtual device names, and its LUD associated space 104 has not provided a field for device address. There is, therefore, a need in the art for providing device addresses to applications on AS/400 like systems.
The system administrator of some remote server system may need to perform work management functions based upon which clients connect to it.
For example, in a first scenario, a business runs multiple computer systems in different locations (such as Paris, Rome, London) in different languages (French, Italian, English) and requires that French clients be routed to the Paris system, Italian clients to the Rome system, and so forth. A Telnet client connection to any system used by the business could optionally be routed to any other system the business desires. For example, a French client might only know the address of the Rome system, Telnet to that Rome system and have the Rome system route him to the Paris system so that he sees a French sign-on panel. In order for this to occur, the server application needs to know where the client is, meaning the IP address of the client. Inspection of the IP address can allow the application to decide which users on which networks will be routed to other systems.
In second scenario, Telnet clients often attach to a remote system (server) and create print files they would like to print on local printers, often printers attached to their (client) workstation. The remote system needs to know where the local workstation is, in order to send the print file to it. That is, the LPR protocol needs to know the IP address of the workstation. This particular problem is known in the TCP/IP environment as "printer passthru".
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved system and method for providing device addresses to applications.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved system and method for enabling user applications in a TCP/IP environment to determine client IP addresses.